Three players withdrew with with injury, namely Demba Ba, James Perch and Yohan Cabaye, whilst there is a very real possibility that we could be without our captain for three games after a moment of madness saw him see red for a challenge on Luis Suarez.
Liverpool had the better of the opening exchanges and managed to turn the screws on Newcastle without really threatening Tim Krul in the United goal. A succession of corners ultimately led to nothing for the home side, much like a penalty claim from Luis Suarez came to nothing, and eventually Newcastle managed to get a foothold in the game, finally using the fans favourite 4-3-3 formation to keep the ball for more than three passes.
However for all the dominance of the hosts it was Newcastle who nearly cared out the first guilt-edged opening of the game with Hatem Ben Arfa inches away from setting Demba Ba away one on one with Brad Jones. It was nearly a cracking opening but you have to give credit to the Liverpool defence for snuffing out the chance.
In truth there wasn’t a lot of goalmouth action at all in the first period although on balance of play it was probably Liverpool who felt they’d done enough to be ahead. However that wasn’t to be the case and two minutes from half-time Hatem Ben Arfa swung a ball over from the right which Yohan Cabaye trapped and half-volleyed at goal from a narrow angle giving the away side a surprising half-time lead. Cracking goal.
Half-time: Liverpool 0-1 Newcastle
The second-half started in much the same vain as the first with Liverpool on top yet ultimately not creating any real chances. A shot from Suarez was easily dealt with by Krul whilst another effort from young Spanish midfielder Suso was deflected over.
However with just over 20 minutes remaining Liverpool finally found the equaliser, and it was one that is far removed from the “passing philosophy” Rodgers believes in/inherited from Roberto Martinez and Paulo Sousa at Swansea.
A long hoof upfield from Jose Enrique was chested down by Luis Suarez who then took one touch to take the ball round Tim Krul and applied the finish by rolling into an empty net. Pundits and commentators fizzed over it, but I see Fabricio Coloccini being the wrong side of Suarez and a goalkeeper who went to ground far too quickly. Difference in perspectives I guess… 1-1.
Liverpool then pushed for the lead with Suarez creating a cracking chance for Jonjo Shelvey who shot straight at Tim Krul. Raheem Sterling was then denied by a superb sliding block from Steve Taylor.
As the home side pressed for a winner, and with time running out, Newcastle very nearly caught them on the break. First Papiss Cisse volleyed wide before Hatem Ben Arfa fire low and hard at Brad Jones in the Liverpool goal.
However a red card for Fabricio Coloccini in the 84th minute effectively put paid to any United attempts to win the game and instead we were left to hang on. To me it was a challenge that looked worse than what it was and if you look at the replays you’ll see minimal contact is made. In short it looked worse than what it was.
In the end though Liverpool were unable to break down the ten men of Newcastle and the points were shared at a ground where Newcastle find points notoriously hard to come by.
Full-time: Liverpool 1-1 Newcastle
Overall I’m happy with the point. I expected nothing before kick-off so this is most definitely a bonus point from my perspective. We now have back-to-back home game coming up against West Ham and Swansea after our European jolly on Thursday. Surely we need to be looking at six points from those?
And if we do manage to get six points from those we perhaps we might find ourselves IN fourth place rather than three points off it? There, is it really so bad?
Howay the lads!
Liverpool: Brad Jones, Andre Wisdom, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger, Jose Enrique, Joe Allen, Steven Gerrard, Nuri Sahin, Suso, Raheem Sterling, Luis Suarez
Subs: Peter Gulacsi, Jamie Carragher, Sebastian Coates, Jonjo Shelvey, Jordan Henderson, Oussama Assaidi, Stewart Downing
Newcastle: Tim Krul, Vurnon Anita, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, James Perch, Jonas Gutierrez, Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba
Subs: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson, Shane Ferguson, Danny Simpson, Gabriel Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi
Attendance: 44,803
http://www.toonbano.com/2012/11/vurnon-anita-finally-shows-his-worth.html?#.UJeuIW_Zauw
Anita
The Kid(Quote)
I think Anita did well, certainly didn’t look awful and Anfield is a difficult place to go to. I think the performance will give him a boost for the next few games, and we need him as our midfield is looking shaky now with all the injuries and suspensions.
EvilFranky(Quote)
The Kid,
Didn’t see anything other than average from Anita myself, but if he can get some confidence then it can only be a good thing for the club.
Some players need games to find form, I think Papiss, Anita, Obertan and Gosling have never been given long enough runs to gain any confidence this season. They know, one bad game and they’re out. Can’t be easy.
JJ(Quote)
Couldn’t include Papiss in that list JJ. While he may not have confidence I think Pardew certainly has stuck with him through the thin.
griff(Quote)
Yeah, thought Anita did alright myself, nothing special but hardly the worst player on the pitch.
Agree with Toonsy about the goal, hoof and hope and poor defending/keeping for me, Cabaye’s goal was clearly better, with a better assist too. Don’t doubt Suarez’s quality it was just a very meh goal and I didn’t understand all the creaming the pundits gave it.
If we didn’t have all those injuries honestly I think we would have won the game fairly comfortably. Ba’s loss meant that we couldn’t build on our attacks as well and it meant Cisse was easy to handle, Cabaye’s loss meant we couldn’t work our counter attacks and we lost even more control on the midfield. Fergie, without doing anything wrong, just couldn’t do anything and him and Sammeobi got in each others way. I thought Sammy did well though, despite falling over, he showed his pace and strength and direct nature on the counter attack. If Obertan ran like Sammy he’d be a dangerous player, careless nature of youth/amateur I suppose.
Newkie(Quote)
Just a few thoughts:
I hope Rodgers continues to kid himself that they should have won and that they are playing well. Yeah, we were shocking in the first ten minutes, absolutely shocking, but after that, we settled and were the better team.
When will the penny drop that Perch is not a midfielder? I wasn’t disappointed that he went off.
Sammy has impressed me lately. I’d stick with him if he can maintain it.
HBA is brilliant and has to be the first name on the team sheet after the captain.
Would like to see Bigi get more of a chance.
Campbell could not do worse than Cisse.
Pleased Shola wasn’t playing. I’m well off him at the moment.
Anita looks lightweight and lost. How he was preferred to Simmo I’ll never know. Welcome to the EPL.
Santon needs to come in from the wing with his left foot not his right; he’d be more difficult to read and would stand a much better chance of getting a right foot shot away if he did.
Jonas is a different player to what he was. He used to mesmerise and go past two or three players with ease. What’s happened? Has he got an identical twin? I’d love to ask him. It’s one of football’s and life’s mysteries.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Richie – in response to the posting, if those stats are correction I’m amazed and passing wise we must have been seriously poor last season then.
In relation to Lpool goal, I think we just have to accept that it was a great control by Suarez. A long inch perfect ball, which Suarez took very well and showed good composure to round Krull. 100 other times it would hit the back of his head or bounce off his shoulder, or he’d put it in row Z when he rounded Krull.
Other than that I just want us to show more composure with the ball. I don’t want to stop Benny being creative but a couple of times he ran at players and lost possession when maybe he should have just played a simple pass.
Can’t be over critical coz we have to remember this was Lpool at Anfield and it was always going to be hard fought.
But I’m certainly disappointed in Colo like.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy….I take no resposibility for the accuracy of those stats 😉 …but if true it ain’t too bad, bearing in mind we’ve probably had a harder start to the fixture list this season and 2 red cards, though Tiote’s in the scum game is probably the only one that really had an effect on possession and therefore passing stats too…maybe as some have mentioned we are just expecting more of the team now, which is understandable as you always want them to improve and be better in the current season than the last.
richietoon(Quote)
Richie – maybe I am expecting too much. I just don’t feel like we have truely dominated a league game yet this season. I thnk we started well against Scum and the first half of WBA we looked solid I suppose.
Can’t believe the injuries we’ve picked up yday as well like. It was also very telling that Simmo started on the bench, looks like that contract negotiation may be dead now.
I’d like to see Pardew give games to the likes of Tav and Good at the back, and the likes of Abeid and Amal in midfield and Campbell up front against Brugge midweek.
I think the result almost comes second to giving some players a run out, coz the way things are looking we may have to call on them over next few weeks, either first team of as subs.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I dont think HBA can do the simple passes. Its almost like he is under pressure to perform some magic everytime he gets the ball. It generally never comes off tho and he gives away posession, over and over again.
Frustrating at times when we just need to keep the ball.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
HBA can do the simple passes imo. Several times he did, he played it to Simmo who did all he can-put in some decent crosses. Problem is, “decent”isn’t good enough, not for Ba or Cisse who will generally always get outmuscled by any average PL CB. They might be tall but they aren’t strong or aggressive like Carroll.
Other times he played it to Cisse who just lost it. I think he probably gets frustrated and his performance dropped notably after Cabaye’s departure-he’s the only other one with real creativity and when he’s off HBA is isolated. There was one point where Benny was countering and Cisse was running alongside a defender where if HBA had looked up and played an inch perfect pass Cisse would have pretty much had an open goal. Instead he tried to beat two men and lost out. I was disappointed there, otherwise I don’t blame him too much.
Newkie(Quote)
BB – that’s exactly what I mean. It’s fantastic to have a player in the side who can beat 2 players and put a ball in the way he did for Cabayes goal.
But at times I just want him to be more intelligent and play it simple. He may actually find that it works in his favour, coz if he mixes it up a bit then the full back will drop their guard. At the mo they expect him to run at them, but if he plays it off or whip a cross in and chooses to go at the full back when they aren’t expecting it so much, then he’ll probably have more success.
I’m not slagging the kid off coz he’s been so much better this season. But it is frustration when attacks break down coz he’s tried to take someone on when a simple one/two might have been a better option.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Newkie – fair point as well mate, Cisse held very little up yday and we miss creation down the left as well so teams rightly anticipate any creative play to come from Benny and double or at times treble up on him.
I saw Amal a few times pre season and reckon he’d be decent on the left of a 3 man midfield.
So for West Ham go with:
——————- Krul —————–
Anita/Simmo-Taylor-Willo-Santon
——— Jonas – Bigi – Amal ———
——— Benny – Cisse – Sammy —–
Or simple to that. But as I say, the Brugge game needs to be used to prepare some of the players for forthcoming league games.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy-Is Cabaye out for the Spammers then?
I’d go for
Simmo-Willo-Staylor-Santon
—–Jonas/Anita-Bigi
-Benny—Cabs—Sammy(Ba if fit, or Cisse)
———Cisse(or Ba)———–
But I dunno. Benny on the left would probably link up very well with Santon, lucky Santon has improved defensively enough to work with Benny I think, but again we’re exposed if we lose the ball on that side. We could of course put fergie at LB but I’d rather not chop and change our defence too much now Colo is out…
The euro match should give us a good indication of how the fringies are doing, really hope to see Amy and Marv get a run out..
Newkie(Quote)
Sharpy…Nowt wrong with having high expectations/hopes mate, that’s what football is all about 😉 If you think back to this time last year though, with an easier(on paper) first 10 games, how many did we really dominate? Stoke is the only one that springs to mind for me.You should know by now, Newcastle don’t like to do things the easy way and like us to be chewing our nails 😕
richietoon(Quote)
Newkie – I don’t know to tell you the truth 😆
I think I’ve just decided he is 😳
If he’s not then my midfielder would be Jonas/Cabs/Anita, with Simmo at RB and keep the rest the rest the same.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy 😆
He might be but I’ve not heard to much, think it was just a niggle. Would be just our luck if he was put out just after finding some form 😕
Newkie(Quote)
Richie – you’re probably right mate, I think I was so surprised at how well so many new players seemed to be fitting in and the results we were getting that the performances weren’t really registering so much.
I thought we looked better last season coz our defence seemed a lot more solid. Also I think Ba and Best seemed more effective than Ba and Cisse have been.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Newkie – I doubt he’ll be on against Brugge either way. Hopefully it’s not too bad but I’d still us Brugge to give the likes of Bigi, Amal and Abied a run out tho.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy-Oh yeah definitely agree with you, I wouldn’t be risking him vs Bruges even if he was fit. Not much point, the squaddies have generally been putting in good performances and deserve to keep all their places. Still not sure whether I’d play Cisse up top, give him a half and see how he does.
Newkie(Quote)
bookies are going 20/1 toon get in top four,l/pool are 6/1 😯
icedog(Quote)
Sharpy…I’d agree with you last season did “seem” better especially when many were expecting the worst and there was little expectation, not so this season…. but going back to the stats, for all our pass completion may be slightly better than last year, we have probably attempted less passes, probably due to the defencive injuries and having no stability in defence(maybe we should have bought a cb, surprised no one mentioned it!). That has resulted in more long balls, which in turn misses out the midfield,which probably puts them on a downer and more likely to foul in an attempt to see more of the ball, in turn that is creating less chances for our strikers as the long ball more often than not is a hit n hope strategy, which in turn pisses of the strikers….especially if they’re not scoring 😕
richietoon(Quote)
Ice…The worst thing is that even if we’d have beaten them, those odds would have been about the same 👿
richietoon(Quote)
aye your about reet there mate 🙁
icedog(Quote)
I don’t understand criticism of Benny when he’s playing so well on the ball, and putting in a good shift too. Okay, he occasionally gets caught in possession, yet lesser players give the ball away more times than he gets caught. There’s no pleasing some people.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
B&B…Agree, if you want to see a flair player in your team that’ll get you off your seat, then you also have to expect them to lose the ball at times, more so than other players who’ll pass rather than using skill and tricks to take on an opposition player.
richietoon(Quote)
I must be on a different planet to most regarding the Colo red card. I just don’t see it. It looked to me that he stopped the action of forward momentum and then forced his foot down to the ground to avoid making contact with Suarez’s leg. Suarez as ever, made a complete and utter meal of it as there wasn’t any contact.
Same as Tiote for me, another poor decision and if that’s the standard set, then we should see many more reds than we actually do.
Stuart79(Quote)
Exactly, if you want the magic then you have to accept the loss of possession at times. He can’t skin them every time, but if you told him to play it simply then we wouldn’t have had that first goal 😉
Newkie(Quote)
Stuart-agreed, it looked a lot worse on the first viewing because I thought he properly raked him but on review it wasn’t actually that bad. But then you get the whole murky area of “intent”. It looked like it could be bad, but it wasn’t, but that’s a red. Meh.
Newkie(Quote)
Cisse put in his worst performance of the season yesterday and it was good to hear Pardew was desperate to get Shola on but had used all his substitutions. Jonas took the blame for the goal but Cisse’s pass to him was atrocious. Cisse could have lit a cigar and turned any way he wanted but passed to Jonas who was surrounded by three red shirts.
What do we do with a problem like Cisse.
Can’t believe West Brom have preferred Odenwingie over Lukaku
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Stuart
I too have been saying that a red was harsh, a yellow for showing studs but not a red as no contact was made and colo pulled out of the tackle at the last minute when he saw the ball was gone. Interesting that no liverpool player was cautioned, even though the were pulling shirts and kicking our players, hell Sterling went in two footed into one challenge and only got a talking to.
On a different note
Don’t fully understand the sport but you gotta admire the fact that his feat will never be exceded 😎
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/schoolboy-scores-longest-touchdown-possible-american-football-125906912.html
Andymag(Quote)
Yeah pleased with a point but tbh after the game I was a bit disappointed as I think we should have got the 3 but thats maybe me being greedy. I just think Liverpool were gifted the chance to score but I have to say I think Suarez is a total muppet but his goal was a cracker.
I was pleased to see that the players put a shift in and even though they cant pass for **** 90% of the time the work rate to me was a massive improvement to the rest of the season bar the Mackems game.
I do 100% think Sterling deserved a strong yellow but I also think Colo deserved his red and I still don’t know what he was doing 😕
Big Dave(Quote)
B&B – I suppose the best way to explain it from my point of view is like this. I was **** at school and my sister was a reet swat.
If I got a C my parents would be buzzing coz it would normally be a D. But if my sister got an A- they’d be asking why it wasn’t an A.
I hope that explains my comments (not critisism) about Benny mate 😉
Sharpy17(Quote)
Dave ,I reckon there was a lot of spanish verbals going on between those two and Suarez defo had the better of Colo all game bar one or two excellent clearences by our captain. It is most unlike Colo to act that rashly ,he’s Mr cool so I’m betting he was provoked and plain frustrated. 😉 For what it’s worth having looked at it a few more times I think he tried to pull out of it at the last but it was an epic fail.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Sharpy ,so glad I’m not the only one who got D’s at school 😆
KIMTOON(Quote)
Oh dear. Has the blog died or wot ?
Thank gawd we have a match on Thursday to keep us going.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Does a win tomorrow garantee us progress to the next round ❓
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Not mathematically, BB – but as good as.
Toon Chicken(Quote)
4 points from our next 3 games will guarantee our progression, but I’d be very surprised if 3 wasn’t enough.
Toon Chicken(Quote)
well I really think we should go with a very strong team and try and get the 3 points.
I know Pardew has said the PL is our priority, and the visit of Wet Spam on sunday, will be foremost in his mind. But a good win tomorrow will give a big boost to the Lads. It will take the pressure off the remaining two matches in the group also.
I would start Cisse up front with Sammy alongside him
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Ah, Sharpy, I see what you mean now – you’re not the brightest 😆 😉
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
defence is going to be a problem tho 😕
Probably would go with
simmo Tavernier Colo Santon
but AP will likely go with
Anita Tav Colo Fergy 🙁
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Southampton’s Nathaniel Clyne, whom the Toon were once reportedly interested in, looked a canny turn last night.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Watching S.Ameobi was real pain for me……
Yesterday i watched on a french tv Cabaye explaining his goal. He said that knowing HBA, he knew HBA would not cross the ball till he gets at the end of his action, that’s why he made himself “forgotten” by the LFC defense. You know the rest…….
From Rwanda with love
Chris(Quote)
so it was a planned move then Chris ❓
My first reaction was that hba over-cooked the cross.
But it did look like Cabaye was just waiting for it like.
Either way, it was a fantastic finish, that got very little recognition, due to the suarez fluke. 😈
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
BB is it not thurs night we’re playing ? I hope it is cause I took the night off.
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave…Aye it is, BB said Thurs in his post@36 but said tomorrow@37…he likes to keep us on our toes 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Richie 😉 so BB is keeping us on our toes 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
Doh ❗
😳
Nowt gets past you Big Dave. 👿
😆
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Dave..nah, I think he’s just easily confused 😆
richietoon(Quote)
wishing my life away.
nice avatar Richie
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
BB @49
Only the “i” in team.
Chris @44
Agree about S Ameobi. He seems far too similar to Shola which could be putting fears in my head about another 15 years of frustration. He does seem to have a bit more pace than Shola had if not the same touch and control.
I don’t think he’ll make it. But then I’ve been saying that about Shola for 15 years, yet once a year he’ll proves me wrong. 😆
JJ(Quote)
BB…Cheers 😀
richietoon(Quote)
B&B – nope mate, I was never going to solve the problem of globe warming mate. But it was a nice change when wor kid got a A- and took the grief off me for abit 😈 😆
That Clyne was reportedly on our radar mate and was on a free transfer. He cost around £2.5m compo for Southampton to bag him and he’s only about 21yrs old.
I felt at the time we missed a trick there and from what I’ve seen of him so far, he’s looked canny.
We were obviously too busy fucking about with the Debuchy deal to get a bargain young English defender in 🙄 👿
Sharpy17(Quote)